


Placebo Effect

by hikikomoron



Category: Free!
Genre: Cutesy, Fluff, High School, M/M, Studying, idk other stuff like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 22:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1364374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikikomoron/pseuds/hikikomoron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>pla - ce - bo<br/>noun<br/>1. a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any psychological effect</p><p>Nagisa's never been the best studier, and with Rei by his side, he's usually even more distracted. But Rei's been reading up on something perhaps a little unorthodox - good luck charms - that may help the bubbly swimmer. And as Rei comes to realize, good luck charms come in all shapes and sizes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Placebo Effect

Rei stared hard at the ceiling of his bedroom. In the morning light coming through his window, it looked almost a... lavender eggshell color, though he knew it to be white. He sighed with sleepiness, waiting. The high schooler always woke up precisely five minutes before his alarm went off. It made sense for him to wake up a little early, so that way he could have five minutes to lay there and then _actually_ wake up when his alarm went off.

When the shrill beep of the alarm navigated its way into Rei's outer ear canals, he turned his head over and in one prompt motion slammed the "off" button. The red letters blinked. 7:30. Perfect. Classes didn't begin until 8:30.

In a moment, he racked his brain, going through a mental checklist - was his lunch made? Did he have his uniform in his backpack? Was calculus homework finished? Everything was in order. He swung himself out of bed, his feet sliding into the lined-up pair of purple slippers on the floor that he set out the night before. The butterfly swimmer turned around and made his bed. After brushing his teeth for exactly two minutes and dressing himself in his tracksuit, he set out, walking towards the subway. It was almost funny, how regimented his life was. Or at least, how it used to be. Everything was planned. From meals to extracurricular activities, he always planned things out a week or even two weeks in advance. Stepping onto the train and checking his watch, he wondered how he let this happen to him. He wasn't sure when it happened, but it hit hard - his life had become run by a 5'5" blond whirlwind. Rather, not run, but influenced. _Strongly._

They'd gone from strangers to, admittedly, friends; Nagisa never stopped talking and was somehow able to get answers out of the ex-track member. Something about the pink-eyed menace got under Rei's skin. Nagisa annoyed him, but it was okay because it was Nagisa.

The train came to a crawling halt and the doors opened, letting in the chilled morning air. It was almost warm enough to start using the pool, Rei noted, and just thinking about it prompted him to hope that Makoto was doing all he could to prevent Haru from taking a premature swim. Rei pushed himself to the door and navigated himself onto the subway platform, then down the steps onto the sidewalk, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Something felt weird and it wasn't until Rei began stretching that he realized what it was.

A certain blond-haired chatterbox hadn't decided to run with him this morning. Come to think of it, Rei hadn't seen Nagisa on the train to school either. Straightening, the tall boy noticed a tug in his stomach, a weight that crawled up into his throat. Nagisa was careless more often than not, but it wasn't like him to miss the train, especially since they rode it together in the morning whether they ran or not.

Thinking that maybe Nagisa had to come in early for something, Rei brushed it off and began a light jog, breathing in two short breaths and out a long breath through the nose. Long ago, he had realized that this was the most effective strategy to ensure that he didn't run out of breath. He was quiet as trained muscles propelled his body forwards, endurance pushing, heart pumping, systems analyzing. When he arrived at Iwatobi High School, he changed into his uniform in the bathroom and headed for homeroom. In the hall on the way there, a head of light brown hair grabbed his attention.

"Makoto-senpai!" Rei reached out, snagging the upperclassman's sleeve.

Makoto had been walking with Haru, like usual, but the free-form swimmer didn't stop when Makoto turned to acknowledge Rei. "Hm?" he asked, lifting his brows.

"Have you seen Nagisa?" the other asked, stepping back. Part of him wished he hadn't asked; he didn't want to come off as clingy, especially when Nagisa was the one always following Rei around. He had to admit, though, without the smaller boy here, there was this strange emptiness that Rei wasn't fond of. When Makoto tilted his head, Rei added, "He wasn't on the train this morning."

Green eyes travelled upwards in thought. "Well..." Makoto hummed, "He was texting me something about math last night. I fell asleep before he did, so I'm not sure what he's doing now."

Math... right, there was a test on Friday, two days from now. The professor had told them about it on Monday, and Rei had been studying since then, of course. "Oh, right," he said. "Well, thank you, Makoto-senpai." Rei bowed his head and continued to homeroom.

Nagisa wasn't there for the duration of the class meeting.

 

\--

 

When the bell rang for lunch, Rei launched himself from his seat and raced to homeroom. The fact that he only had one backpack strap hooked over his shoulder gave for an uneven distribution of weight, so running up the stairs was more awkward than it should have been. Leaping through the door, his frayed nerves were soothed when purple eyes settled onto a head of blonde hair nestled in the arms of its owner, resting on the desk. Every muscle in Rei's body relaxed in an instant. He sighed with relief, and with it, the emptiness left him. Something of a smile returned to the boy's lips, just a ghost of one, tugging on the corners of his mouth.

Rei moved quietly to the empty seat beside the sleeping Nagisa, as if he would wake him if he was too loud, even though loud lunch conversations were going on all around them. Rei wasn't concerned about everyone else, though. For now, they might as well not even exist. All he knew was that Nagisa was here and he was alright.

Before he could say anything, though, the smaller boy lifted his head up and leaned back in his chair, mouth opening wide in a yawn that he didn't bother to cover. It was accompanied by a loud groan of fatigue. Rei waited patiently until it was over, and watched as Nagisa rubbed an eye with his knuckle. In this time, the megane realized he couldn't let this slip. Nagisa wasn't allowed to just decide not to show up and not tell anyone about it! The careless blond had gotten Rei all worked up and worried over nothing. Using his thumb and middle finger, he pushed his glasses up, blinking as the other boy stretched.

"What's wrong, Rei-chan?" came the inquisitive coo. "You look grumpy..."

"I am!" Rei said at once, frowning. "Where have you been all morning?"

Nagisa tilted his head, leaning over his desk again. "Oh, I tried studying for the math test last night," he chirped. Suddenly, though, he made a face that could only be described as the definition of distressed. "But I got so confused and stayed up too late!" The boy whined loudly and buried his face back into his arms, causing Rei to sigh and roll his eyes.

They had that night and the next to study for the test. Well, Rei already knew everything, but Nagisa... not so much. He could try to help the smaller swimmer, but Rei couldn't remember a study session between the two of them that didn't end with Nagisa falling asleep and drooling onto his paper (or Rei's shoulder). But perhaps there was a way for Nagisa to pass the test that didn't involve the most orthodox methods. Rei himself believed in strategic studying and hard work; committing things to long-term memory worked best. But for Nagisa, Rei recalled a particular placebo that he had read about in an article somewhere. The least he could do was read up some research on it, just to investigate.

"Hm..." the megane hummed. "I think I can find a way to help you."

Nagisa about launched himself out of his seat. "Really?!" he shouted, eyes sparkling with stars of hope and intrigue. Sitting back down, the blond's mouth widened into a bright grin. "Ah, I should have known! Rei-chan's the best!"

He turned away, feeling his ears get hot. He went to adjust his glasses again. "I'm not sure yet..." Rei said uneasily. "I'll research it tonight and let you know on Thursday." Nagisa was too busy biting into a strawberry jam-covered bread to do anything but nod excitedly.

 

\--

 

Placebos. They made perfect sense. It was all deception, really; "mind over matter," as the saying went. As long as a person believed that what was happening was going to help them, it could actually help them. Placebo medication was used all the time, according to the articles Rei had read. It was just simple psychology, and a lot simpler than you'd think. The next morning, Nagisa had indeed shown up to homeroom. He was sipping on a bottle of strawberry milk from a striped straw. Rei leaned against the door frame, just watching him there. The blond was staring at his desk, rubbing at a stray pencil mark. He had also changed Rei's life. For the better or for the worse? Well, only time would tell. Rei had learned a lot though, things that he could never read in online articles or find in a textbook. All those sappy friendship phrases from elementary school over came back to him after that first year of joining the swim club. Real friendship exists, and maybe it's not perfect, but when is anything? Thoughts like that coming from Rei really was an indicator that things _had_ changed. He had learned that people weren't all that bad, to accept them for who they were and when it calls for it, do things for the team. For your friends.

He would have never truly woken up if hadn't been for Nagisa.

Speaking of waking up, the bell pierced Rei's mind and he hurried to his seat, sitting down in a frenzy in his usual spot. The homeroom teacher began making a few announcements, but Nagisa leaned over, keeping his eyes up by the chalkboard.

"Did you find a way, Rei- _chaaan?_ " the sing-song whisper hushed.

Rei looked down at his watch, studying it idly. "I think so," he answered, though confidently. "It's simple, really, and I think it'll work for you."

"I don't have to read a lot of papers, do I?"

Rei rolled his eyes. "No."

It was quiet, but he could almost hear Nagisa smiling in delight.

 

\--

 

"So, like... a good luck charm!" the blond mewled.

"Yes," Rei crossed his arms over his chest, glancing out the train window. He had briefly described the history of placebos in practice and exactly what they did, but Nagisa wasn't really listening. He seemed to get it. With him, Rei could never be sure. The other was quiet for a moment, causing Rei to look over.

Nagisa had his hands clasped in his lap, staring hard down at his thumbs. "What am I gonna use as a good luck charm...?" he muttered quietly, almost speaking to himself.

Sighing, Rei cast a sideways glance. Nagisa had an abundance of little keychains and phone accessories, lots of things that could work as good luck charms. But, Rei supposed, they didn't mean enough for him to think about using them as charms for Friday's test. When the train stopped, Rei stood up and navigated his way onto the platform, Nagisa following quickly after. The shorter boy pulled out his pink flip-phone and began texting, filling the air with a steady _click-click click!_ as they walked down the steps and across the street.

The blond wasn't expecting it when Rei turned around suddenly. Iridescent eyes looked upwards, head tilting so that wavy blond bangs fell across Nagisa's forehead. In an instant, Rei glared away. "Er, well, Nagisa-kun..." he began. The other didn't say anything but blinked expectantly. In a fluid motion, Rei undid his watch from his wrist and held it up in front of Nagisa's face. "You can use this as your good luck charm."

For a moment, the other boy didn't say or do anything other than stare. It had Rei worried - no of course Nagisa didn't want to use his watch as a good luck charm, it wasn't even a charm, let alone anything he would want to wear or even put in his pocket. But pink eyes lit up and the breaststroke swimmer reached out and took it, looking mystified.

"Rei-chan's watch?" he asked as though he were receiving some important family heirloom. Excited, he put it around his wrist. It was a little big, but looked just fine. Nagisa extended his arm, smiling and examining how it looked on his wrist. "It'll be a perfect good luck charm! I'll get to have a little Rei-chan with me when I take the test!"

"You should probably study a little... just in case," Rei added, using all of his concentration to look away from that cute face. He'd blush fiercely if he did and that would be an unnecessary embarrassment.

"Thanks, Rei-chan!" Nagisa wasn't really paying attention to the studying suggestion. He hooked his arm around Rei's and began walking, tugging him along. "I can't wait for the test!"

The blue-haired megane blinked widened eyes, shocked to have heard his companion utter those words. Nagisa? Excited for a math test? In spite of himself, he smiled a little, watching the boy as he continued talking about watches, time, et cetera et cetera. Good luck charms, huh, Rei thought. They must come in all shapes and sizes. And maybe they really do work.

**Author's Note:**

> wow this is my first fanfic im actually really pleased that people actually are reading it and - hopefully - enjoying it. thanks so much for the kudos so far and everything, guys !!


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